The Courier by Gerald Brandt

Author:Gerald Brandt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2016-02-11T13:08:16+00:00

LEVEL 4—WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2140 7:00 P.M.

Miller led me past the windows lining the lobby. I had a hard time grasping where I was. Yesterday, I’d managed a few hours of sleep in my old Level 1 hole, covered in mouse shit and garbage. The day before that I had been sleeping in my own bed above Lee’s Fish Market. Now I was walking on lush carpet, passing real green plants, in a fancy hotel I wouldn’t have been able to get near if I was alone. I tried to brush some of the dirt off my jacket and only succeeded in spreading it to my hands. I had never felt more out of place, more like one of the bums on Chinatown’s streets, like unwanted filth. The urge to turn and run, to get back to where I belonged, burned in me, and I fought it as best I could. I brushed my sweaty hands on my jeans, trying to get rid of the dirt, and ended up just jamming them into my pants pocket. My fingers curled reflexively around the key chain that wasn’t there.

The Ambients that flooded in through the windows dimmed a notch and changed their tone to a more subtle orangey yellow. The joys of Level 4. On Levels 1 and 2, and most parts of 3, the Ambients just dimmed or turned off abruptly at night. I wasn’t used to it, and it added to my feeling of not belonging.

The far wall, away from the windows, held a small gift shop. Souvenirs of the city lined the shelves with colorful t-shirts and handbags, rows of candy, and the prerequisite shelf of miniature toothpaste tubes and headache remedies.

At the end of the lobby was a small coffee shop, open to the outside with cute little tables and chairs on the patio. Beside it, inside the hotel proper, was a more upscale place with a hostess waiting to seat you. By the look of it, they shared a common kitchen between them.

I angled toward the coffee shop before Miller pulled me across the hall toward the hostess.

“I’ll be right back, okay? I just gotta fill the AD in on what’s been happening. Wait here.”

I nodded and moved closer to a potted palm near the front door. The hostess smiled at Miller when he walked past her, and then turned to me with a look of disgust on her face. I pretended to look out the windows. If the bitch had been through the same crap I had, she’d probably be dead already. The second the thought entered my head, I felt ashamed of it.

A few minutes later, Miller came back, brushing past the hostess as if she wasn’t there. He didn’t have the package anymore. It felt strange, not having it near me, as if it had become a part of who I was.

“Come on, Kris, we’ll get you something to eat,” he said.

I followed Miller into the restaurant, pretty sure that if he hadn’t led the way, the hostess would have stopped me.

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